Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 69

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CHAPTER TWO
The husband of the three, he caused a separation as a joke."
Bowing to the best of gaṇabhrts, the dwarf said, "It happened just as it was seen by your eye of knowledge, not otherwise."
Kumbha, the chief-gaṇabhrt, stopped preaching at the end of the second watch. Such is the length of the sermon. After bowing to Gañadhara Kumbha, Sheth Sāgaradatta, delighted, went with the dwarf to the resthouse. When the three noticed the dwarf approaching, they went to meet him immediately. Who is not pleased at receiving news about a husband ?
Sägaradatta said, “He is the husband of the three of you." They asked, “How is that?" and he related the . whole affair. The three and the head-nun, also, were amazed. Going inside, the dwarf laid aside his character of dwarf. First he became such as he was when Anangasundari saw him. Next, he laid aside his dark color and assumed a fair color. Recognized by all the women, surrounded by them eager, he was asked by the nun, "Why did you do this?” He replied, “Madam, I left home for a joke; and for a joke the desertion of these three was disregarded by me.”
The nun Suvratā spoke this true speech: "At a distance, in a foreign country, in a forest, on a mountain, even on the ocean, or in any other unpleasant place, wherever the righteous go, there they obtain measureless pleasure just as if at home. The teaching of the Arhats is, 'Pleasures are the consequence of gifts to suitable persons.' To whom did he give? We shall ask the Jineśvara Ara." The chief-nun, Sāgaradatta, and Virabhadra with his wives went to Ara Svāmin and bowed properly. Suyratā asked the Supreme Lord, "What did Vīrabhadra do in a former birth that had pleasure as its fruit?" He explained: "In my next to the last birth,21 as a merchant's son named
21 370. I.e., the first birth in this biography.